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AN 



ADDEESS 



IN COMMEMORATION OF THE COMPLETION 



OF THE 



FIRST FREE BRIDGE ! 



ACROSS 



CONNECTICUT EI YEP., 



BY 



Pi^of. E. D. SANBORN. 



TOGETHER "VS'ITH A KEPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND REMARKS OF 

"Or. 130XJR:NrES, Dr. CROSBY, Froi. r^TXERSON-, 
and "Win. K. DXJ^^'C^^LlSr, Esq. 



JULY 1st, 1859. 



HANOVER, N. H.: 

PUBLISHED BY B. D. HOWE; 

BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER. 
P, B. COGSWELL, PRINTER, CONCORD, N. H. 









f,W^f?^1 



ADDRESS, ETC. 



On the first day of July, 1859, a large and highly respectable 
audience, composed of citizens of Norwich and Hanover, "with 
the Students of Dartmouth College and Norwich University, 
gathered in the College Church at 3, P. M., to celebrate the 
completion of the first Free Bridge over the Connecticut River. 
The exercises were opened by a voluntary from the choir, and an 
appropriate prayer by the Rev. Dr. Bournes. After which, 
Prof. Dixi Crosby, President of the meeting, arose and ad- 
dressed the assembly as follows : 

Fellow Citizens : — I prefer this form of salutation from its 
associations — for with it is connected the idea of every place 
and every occasion, "where freemen meet for an open expression 
of opinion — for a mutual interchange of thought and for counsel, 
how the greatest strength may result from the most perfect 
union. The School District — the Town — the County — the 
State — and the Federal Whole are all indicated and with it the 
idea of that perfect union we are to-day met to consecrate and 
in honor of which our nation's flag is so proudly waving from 
yonder staff. 

There occur in the history of every town, every State, and 
every nat:on — certain epochs pregnant with good or fraught 
with danger — which demand public recognition from the people 5 
and it is one of the former wc are to-day met to celebrate. 

I hold it to be improper upon this occasion to enter upon any 
comparison of the relative merit due to those individuals who 
have labored to accomplish so desirable a result. To say whose 






services miL^ht have been dispensed with, or without whose aid 
the project might have failed, would, upon this occasion and in 
this presence, be out of place. It is sufficient that a public 
work has been accomplished, which is of vital importance to us 
all. And if during the long, weary years of our probation, the 
magnitude of the undertaking has at any time created a corres- 
ponding warmth of feeling and opinion, and if any have felt 
aggrieved or have " set down aught in malice," let this day's 
proceedings be regarded as the funeral service of all such senti- 
ments, and the resurrection day of that neighborly kindness 
and town friendship, which was not dead, but only slept. 

But I will no longer detain you, but beg the privilege of in- 
troducing the historian and orator of the occasion. Prof. E. D. 
Sanborn. 

Prof. Sanborn rose amid the enthusiastic applause of the 
audience, and delivered the following admirable address, which 
was listened to with profound attention, and only interrupted by 
the frequent cheering with which his pertinent hits and eloquent 
periods were received : — 

Fellow Citizens : — A work has been completed. A duty 
has been performed. A conflict has been waged. A victory 
has been won. The work whose completion we celebrate, to- 
day, cannot be compared with the pyramids or the ponderous 
architecture of the valley of the Nile ; but it is infinitely more 
useful than the temples of Karnac, Edfou and Dendera or those 
towering monuments that keep perpetual watch and ward on the 
borders of the great desert, on whose rock-hewn sides- time has 
traced, in mystic lines, the history of forty centuries. The 
Egyptians were famed for their wisdom. They led the civiliza- 
tion of the world for fifteen centuries. They were thcteachers 
of the Greeks. Their science and their philosophy constituted 
the foundation on which subsequent nations built; yet they had 
not knowledge enough to construct a bridge. The far-famed 
Thebes, styled by Homer " the hundred gated Thebes," stood on 
both banks of the Nile ; and its different divisons were never 
united by a bridge. Our new-made structure over the Con- 



necticut would have spanned the Nile, where that mighty citj 
stood ; but the old Egyptian never conceived of a "v\'ork of art 
so useful and requiring so much skill and science in union, to 
hang it above a running stream. The Nile was literally alive 
■with boatmen driving all sorts of water craft with oars and sails 
from the trough hollowed from a single trunk, the papyrus shal- 
lop smeared with bitumen, the fragile boat of light earthcrn ware 
and the raft of reeds, to the stately barge for commerce and 
the royal yacht for pleasure. 

The grain and fruits of the Delta passed up the Nile to the 
markets of Diospolis ; and the downward current bore on its 
tide, the quarried stones of the Thebaid to Sais and Canopus. 
No bridge spanned the sacred stream throughout the fifteen 
hundred miles of its known course. Herodotus says that there 
were twenty thousand towns upon its banks.. The average 
■width of the valley of the river never exceeded seven miles. 
If ■within these narrow limits, one half the number of towns 
mentioned by the Greek traveller, ever existed, the constant 
ferrying of people from bank to bank must have afforded cause for 
incessant motion upon the -water. Fishers and fowlers, too, 
diversified the scene. No nation of antiquity had so much oc- 
casion for bridges as the Egyptians. For a considerable portion 
of the year their -whole arable land was flooded by the Nile so 
as to resemble an archipelago with scattered islands rising here 
and there above its surface. Their occupations forced them to 
live upon the water much of the time, yet they never found 
means to unite, by a permanent structure, the ojiposite banks of 
the divine river. They were acquainted with the arch but sel- 
dom employed it in building. They built their temples and 
palaces of stone. Their walls were massive, thick, and sloping 
from the base to the battlements. This feature of their archi- 
tecture is supposed to have been derived from the mud walls 
and mounds of their ancestors. The roofs and covered ways 
were flat, composed of enormous blocks of stone extending from 
one wall to another or from one column to another. Even their 
gates and doors were not arched. Existing ruins reveal these 
facts. It was probably due therefore, to their ignorance and 



■^yant of skill that they never bridged the Nile. The arch docs 
not appear in Egypt, according to Mr. Wilkinson, till the ISth 
dynasty of kings, when there existed a close connection 
with the Assyrians, who understood the principle of the arch. 
A small vaidted chamber of baked bricks has been fovmd 
at Nimroud ; but there are no traces of an arch or vault used 
on a large scale. The roofs of Assyrian palaces and temples 
were flat. The use of columns seems not to have been known 
till after the occupation of Assyria by the Greeks. The Baby- 
lonians had sufficient science to bridge over the Euphrates. 
Their city stood on both banks of this river and the bridge, 
which united the two divisions, is stated by some authors to 
have been five furlongs in length. It consisted of piers with 
beams laid horizontally from pier to pier. The river is said to 
have been turned from its channel, while the piers were built. 
This is the oldest bridge of which we have any record. There 
is no mention of such a structure in the Old Testament. The 
Chinese are probably the pioneers of the world in this kind of 
mechanism. " The bridge of Tsuen-tcheou-fou, the capital of 
Fo-kien, has more than 100 arches. At Tsuen-tcheou, there is 
a bridge with 300 stone piers with angles toward the river." 
Some of their bridges are very long, very strong, and very old. 
They use pointed, semi-circular, polygonal and semi-eliptical 
arches in their various stone bridges. Their construction is 
curious, ingenious and wonderfully permanent. 

When South America was conquered by the Spaniards, light, 
elastic suspension bridges had been constructed by the Incas 
across mountain torrents and yawning chasms. The same kind 
of bridges still exists in that country. They are very narrow, 
not exceeding four and a half feet in width, and being built of 
light and flexible materials, oscillate, like a pendulum, in a terrific 
manner, when they are crossed. Sometimes a single rush rope 
sustains a swinging chair or carriage, which is drawn across by 
another rope. This is almost equivalent to travelling in a bal- 
loon. The danger is probably quite as great. 

The Persians, in their invasion of European countries, made 
use of bridges of ships. Darius in passing into Scythia is said 



to have bridged the Thracian Bosporus with boats, superintend- 
ed by a Greek en^neer named Mandrocles. The saroe king 
made a bridge of ships across the Danube over which report 
says he led 700,000 men, a number greatly exaggerated. The 
most famous bridge of ships ever built, was that constructed 
by Phoenician and Egyptian seamen, for Xerxes over the Holies 
pont, seven eighths of a mile in length. The first bridge was 
broken up by a storm and the enraged despot lashed and fettered 
the sea in his ire. The second was built of 360 triremes on the 
side next to the Propontis, ranged lengthwise across the stream, 
and 314, on the other side facing down the current, all secured 
by anchors, and cables united them. The whole wa? made fast 
to the shore by enormous cables twisted from ropes of flax and 
papyrus bar!: and stretched tight by means of a windlass on 
each side. This bridge partook of the nature of suspension 
bridges, as the chief power that kept it at its moorings was on 
the land. The decks of the vessels were covered with planks 
which were strown with boughs of trees with a stratum of earth 
above them. On either side were bulwarks to prevent the 
horses from being alarmed in crossing. The transit of the in- 
vading army occupied seven days and nights, as the story runs. 
The Greeks were a maiitime people. The Athenians, like 
the modern English, gloried in their supremacy upon the seas. 
They almo t lived upon the water. Ships, boats and rafts were 
far more familiar to their thoughts than bridges. In the days 
of their highest renown, when their architecture had reached a 
degree of perfection which has never been surpassed, when 
their porticoes were lined with paintings and their very streets 
adorned with statues, the people waded over the Cephisus for 
the want of a bridge. Their streams were small and limited in 
extent. This fact, perhaps, made them more indifferent about 
facilities of transit. The Greeks do not seem to have valued 
the arch sufficiently to excel in the building of bridges or sewers. 
The Romans delighted in stupendous arches and capacious 
domes. Tlic cloaca maxima is among the oldest stone structures 
in existence. It is said to have been built by Tarquinius Pris- 
ons to drain Rome of its surplus waters. It is formed of three 



concentric arches of -wliicli the innermost is a semicircular 
vault of fourteen feet in diameter, composed of hewn stoue 
without cement. It is to day as perfect as it was 2500 years 
ago and is a very remarkable monument of the skill of that 
early day. The Romans excelled in works of practical utility. 
They built magnificent aqueducts, roads and bridges. Stone 
arches they carried to a high pitch of perfection. The oldest 
stone bridges known to history, (several of which still exist,) 
were built by the Romans. Their solidity, proportions and 
durability show that they were constructed on scientific princi- 
ples. The oldest structures of this kind were not distinguished 
for the breadth of their arches or the lightness of their piers. 
Strength, and majesty marked Roman works as they did the 
Roman mind. The chord of their arches, in early times, seldom 
exceeded 80 feet. They were mostly semicircular. Pliny 
mentions two large bridges in Greece, which are supposed to 
have been built after the conquest of that country by the Ro- 
mans. One of them spanned the Acheron and was 1000 feet 
in leno-th. The other united the island of Euboca to Boeotia, 
across the straits of Euripus, which in the narrowest part, is 
about forty yards in width. There were at difi'erent times eight 
bridnres across the Tiber, in Rome. The oldest was called Pons 
Sublicius, or the wooden bridge. It was built by Ancus Marti- 
us, the fourth king of Rome, provided such a man ever lived. 
The bridge was a reality whatever may have been the fate of 
the reputed builder. The old story says it was cut down during 
the war of Porsenna, the Etrurian, while Iloratius Codes, single- 
handed, prevented the enemy from entering upon its Northern 
end. It was rebuilt without nails so that it could be removed if 
necessary with greater facility. The reconstruction was super- 
intended by the high priests ; hence they are called " pontifi- 
ces," pontitfs or bridge-builders. It is a pity that all pontiffs 
could not be as well employed. A wooden bridge was standing 
in the place where the last was built, in the age of Augustus, 
700 years later. Ovid alludes to it in the following distich : 

" Turn (juoque priscorum virgo simulacra virorura 
Mittere roboreo scirpea ponte solet." 



9 

This first Italian bridge and those of Lodi and Magenta will 
be forever memorable in history as the theatres of great battles. 
The Roman bridge was a favorite resort for beggars ; hence a man 
without visible means of support was called " aliqnis de ponte," 
a man from the bridge. There was a small island iu the Tiber, 
between the citj and mount Janiculum on the North. A bridge 
connecting the city with the island on which some temples stood, 
was built about the time of the conspiracy of Catiline by Lucius 
Fabricius. The other portion which joins the island to Janiculum 
was built by Cestius Gallus, in the reign of Tiberius. Both 
these structures still stand, the one a monument of republican 
enterprise ; the other of imperial exaction. Roman bridges iu 
the provinces were numerous and often imposing in appearance. 
They were the chief embellishments of their military roads 
which intersected every part of the empire. Their magnificent 
ruins exist in Italy, Portugal and Spain to attest the scale of 
grandeur with which works of national utility were constructed 
by this practical people. One of the finest of these structures 
still exists entire at Ariminum, now Rimini in Italy. It was 
commenced by Augustus and completed by Tiberius. 

Trajan reared a magnificent bridge over the Danube. It was 
3010 feet in length and 48 high. Twenty-two arches were 
supported by twenty-three piers, with a platform of wood above. 
There exists a representation of it on the column of Trajan at 
Rome. It was destroyed by Hadrian under pretence that it 
would let in the barbarians upon Roman territory ; or as others 
assert, from envy because his reign would be signalized by no 
such work of art. Other authorities describe the bridge diiFer- 
ently. It has with them, greater length and height. It was 
built in the narrowest, and of course, the deepest and most rapid 
portion of the river. For that day, it was a work of astonish- 
ing magnificence. During the dark ages, the Moors were cele- 
brated for their bridge-building. The bridge of Cordova over 
the Guadalquiver remains to bear witness to their success. In 
the eighteenth century, bridges were built in France by religious 
societies as a work of benevolence. Travellers were often 
robbed by banditti in crossing rivers. The " Brethren of the 



]0 

Bridge," as they were styled, built bridges, established ferries 
and erected caravansaries on the banks of rivers to prevent such 
outrages and facilitate travel. Queen Matilda, in the IJth 
century, came near drowning in crossing the river Lea at Strat- 
ford, England. She, thereupon, built a stone bridge over the 
stream called " Le Bow," from the Latin " De Arcubus " 

The bridge that spans the Rhone, at Avignon, was built by a 
religious Society. It was composed of eighteen arches, the 
largest of which was measured by a chord of 110 feet. The 
oldest bridge in England is the Gothic triangular bridge at 
Croyland, in Linconshire, the county from which many of our 
Puritan ancestors emigrated. It is said to have been built A, 
D. 8G0. It is so steep that only foot passengers can cross it. 
The longest bridge in England belonging to the dark ages is 
that over the Trent at Burton, in Straffordshire. It was built 
in the 12th century, of scjuared freestone. It has 34 arches 
and is 1545 feet in length. The London bridge was commenced 
in 1170, and for many years sustained dwelling houses upon it, 
like the solid earth. They were not removed till the 18th cen- 
tury. Till 1750, there was only one bridge across the Thames. 
Two carts could not cross it abreast. For nearly a century 
prior to that date, strenuous efforts had been made to bridge the 
Thames higher up. The Londoners were exclusive in their 
claims. It would ruin tlie city they said, to have another place 
for carts to cross the river. They succeeded in defeating the 
charters of other bridges till 1750. No less than nine bridges 
now span the Thames within a few miles from its mouth. The 
new London bridge allows four vehicles abreast, besides side 
walks for persons on foot. No less than 12,000 carriages and 
60,00(' pedestrians cross it daily. 

The first attempt to use cast iron in bridge building, was at 
Lvons, in France, in 1755. It did not succeed. An English 
architect by the name of Pritchard, not long afterwards built a 
cast-iron bridge over the Severn, of 100 feet span. The next 
attempt was made by the famous Thomas Paine, " stay maker, 
privateersman, exciseman, school-master, poet, politician, legis- 
lator and arch' infidel." He undertook to build an iron bridge 



11 

over tlie Schuylkill of 400 feet span. He had the castings 
made in England, and the bridge was set up near London, on 
Paddington Green. Paine was unable to meet his debts, and 
it was sold and set up over the river "Wear at Sunderland, in 
1796. It is even now regarded as one of the boldest experi- 
ments in engineering ever executed. About the close of the 
last century, an English stone mason by the name of Telford 
became quite famous by the construction of cast iron arched 
bridges over small streams in England. He proposed to re- 
build the London Bridge with a single arch, of 600 feet chord, 
but at that time the project was regarded as visionary, and 
rejected. Now there are five bridges crossing the Thames 
within the precincts of London. The longest cast iron arch in 
England is in the Southwark bridge, being measured by a chord 
of 2^0 feet. The most extensive stone arch known is over the 
Dee at Chester, 200 feet across. Li the early part of tliis cen- 
tury, suspension bridges supported by wrought iron chains came 
into use. The most remarkable of these structures is hung 
over an arm of the sea called the Menai Straits, between 
Wales and the island of Anglesea. It was superintended by 
Mr. Brown Telford, who had built so many roads and bridges 
that his coteraporaries styled him " Pontifex maximus" and the 
" Colossus of Roads." 

The piers are nearly 200 feet high, and the bridge swings 
100 feet above the water. The weight thus hung in the air is 
489 tons, a work infinitely more difiicult of execution than the 
rearing of Egyptian obelisks, or rolling up mighty blocks to lift 
the pyramids so high as " to meet the sun in his coming." 
Pendent bridges are often injured by oscillation. An inconsid- 
erable weight sometimes snaps the chains by the vibration which 
is communicated to them from the regular movement of the 
progressing burden. A suspension bridge near Manchester was 
broken down by the regular tread of 60 soldiers marching over 
it. The longest bridge of this kind spans a valley in Switzer- 
land. The space between the towers is 870 feet. The cables 
are composed of fine wires, like the Atlantic cable, each con- 
taining 1056 threads bound by ligatures of the same material 



12 

everytwo feet. The suspension bridge over the Niagara river, 
two miles below the falls, is perhaps as remarkable a structure 
of the kind as this country affords. It cost about $400,000. 
The English would have made the expense double that sum. 
The span is 820 feet, and the bridge swings 250 feet above the 
stream. 

The cables are ten inches in diameter, composed of 3640 
wires. Hitherto, it has answered the end for which it was built, 
and promises to be durable. The construction of railroads has 
multiplied bridges indefinitely. Since 1825, more than 25,000 
have been built in England alone. Iron is the principal mate- 
rial now used for such structures. " In England, the pig iron 
produced in one year (1857) amounted to 3,686,377 tons, 
which at an average of $20 per ton, would yield an income of, 
at least, $72,500,000. In the first cast iron bridges the arch 
was used. Mr. George Stephenson first employed for small bridges 
cast iron beams, then cast-iron arch girders with the lower web 
larger than the upper, then tubular bridges made of boiler 
plates riveted together. One of the most remarkable products 
of human ingenuity is the bridge which crosses the valley be- 
tween Newcastle and Gateshead. Newcastle occupies the sides 
and summits of three acclivities which rise steeply from the 
river Tyne. It is the great coal mart of England ; hence it is 
very important to enter it without climbing a hill. The problem 
of Mr. Stephenson Avas to throw a bridge across the deep ravine 
in the bottom of which runs the river, a navigable river crowded 
with vessels. The gorge is very deep, so that to one descend- 
ing into it in the night it seems to be the very mouth of Tar- 
tarus. For centuries, the travel and traffic from the North and 
South plunged down into this abyss, crossed this modern Styx 
on a bridge, and then climbed the other side into the upper air. 
The sides of these hills are covered with antique dwellings and 
shops. The river at this point is 515 feet wide ; the width of 
the valley to be bridged above it 4000 feet. The bridge passes 
far above the tops of the houses on the sides of the gorge and 
of the ships in the river. The construction of the bridge re- 
quired great skill and invention. A pier must be set up in the 



13 

middle of the river. Piles were driven to the depth of 32 feet 
in the sand. Titanic steam hammers weii^hing thirty hundred 
each, dealing sixty or seventy strokes in a minute, sent one of 
these denuded trees to bed in about four minutes. The extri- 
cated heat was sometimes so great as to set the head of the 
pile on fire. After the piles were all driven, it was very difficult 
to build a coffer dam that would shut out the w"ater. The sur- 
rounding pressure forced in the water through the quick sands 
from the bottom, and no success Avas had till they rubbled and 
cemented the coffer dam. It re([uired no little labor and skill 
to make a concrete water-proof foundation on the bottom of a 
deep river flowing over (juick sand. More than 400,000 cubic 
feet of material was used in constructing the piers alone, and a 
much larger amount in the abutments on the land. The double 
bridge above for the railroad and for passengers on foot and in 
carriages, is made entirely of wrought and cast iron. It was 
completed in 1849. Such a work strikes the spectator with 
awe and astonishment. It seems to surpass the finite powers of 
man. It is certainly very far in advance of any thing aiiticui: 
artists ever conceived of or executed. Still greater skill and 
ingenuity have been exhibited in othei^ places in securing the 
foundation for bridges, where sands, mud or bogs were to be 
crossed. Iron has been used for this purpose, also. Dr. Pott 
invented cast iron cylindrical piles open at the bottom and closed 
at the top, except where a suction tube is inserted by which the 
air or water forcing its Avay through the mud into the cylinder 
is exhausted and the atmospheric pressure from above forces it 
down. These tubular piles, like those in Artesian wells, may 
be united and sunk to any depth which the situation requires. 

Mr. ^litchell also invented screw pipes which are turned like 
an auger, and thus forced home till they meet some solid mate- 
rial to rest upon. But where stones obstruct this boring pro- 
cess, the huge tubes have been used as diving bells, containing 
workmen within them who sometimes work their way like worms 
to the depth of 90 feet below the surface. These tubes are at 
least seven feet in diameter, and fresh air is supplied from above 
by a steam forcing pump. The mud, sand and stones dug up 



14 

from the bottom are passed up in buckets to a chamber above, 
and then the orifice is closed bj a •wrought iron cover, -which 
can be securely bolted. From the chamber above the workmen 
at the surface have tlie means of drawing up or letting down 
whatever they please. So a solid foundation is constructed upon 
shifting sands, yielding mud or porous rag stone. 

Those theorists, who hold to the necessary decline of all na- 
tions, sometimes prophecy that ages hence, some philosopher 
from New Zealand perhaps, may sit upon one of the mouldering 
arches of London Bridge and muse, like Marius amid the ruins 
of Carthage, upon the instabiliry of national greatness. Sup- 
pose, then, that 3000 years hence, when a long night of bar- 
barism has settled upon Albion's sea-girt isle, 

" That precious stone set in the silver sea," 

some artificer in the progress of a new civilization, should find a 
nest of these cast-iron piles, 50 feet below the surface of the 
ground, which, perhaps, by geological changes, may then be the 
body of a mountain instead of the bed of a river ! How many 
ingenious theories would be broached to account for the strange 
discovery. Some opponents of science would doubtless pronounce 
them mere lusus nature, products of the divine hand, placed 
there to try the faith of an unbelieving generation ! Others 
would boldly assert that they were wrought by human skill ; 
and thus, an interminable war of words would be waged over 
these dumb witnesses of a better age. The English author, 
Speed, speaking of the fossil Ammonites of St. Hilda, in York- 
shire, calls them " certain stones fashioned like unto serpents, 
folded and wrapped round like a wreath ; even the very pas- 
times of nature, who, when she is wearied with serious workes, 
sometimes forgem and shapeth things by way of sport and rec- 
reation." Had the pyramids been swallowed up by an earth- 
quake 2500 years ago, and disinterred by modern geologists, 
we should doubtless find some antiquated thinkers who would 
class tliem among Nature's sports. 

I have previously described the suspension bridge which spans 
the Menai Straits. This was built for ordinary travel. More 
recently a tubular bridge of iron has been hung over this same 



15 

arm of the sea for the running of cars. It is called the Britan- 
nia bridge. It is 1518 feet in length. It Avas raised in four 
divisions by the hydrostatic press, -without human power except 
to regulate the machinery ; each section weighing with the ap- 
pliances necessary to raise it 1800 tons. When the successive 
sections were all united in one continuous tube, at an elevation 
of 100 feet above the water, a train of cars drawn by three en- 
gines, laden with 300 tons of coal, attended by about 40 car- 
riages containing six or seven hundred passengers, on the 5th 
of March, 1850, passed through it in safety, having settled the 
iron structure in the centre only four-tenths of an inch. Some 
scientific engineei'S maintain that the roof of this bridge being 
double, and the intervening space being divided into septs like 
a honey-comb, is as strong as though it were made of solid iron. 
Certainly no ordinary weight carried in the usual routine of 
railroad business, has ever displaced or shattered a single plate 
or bolt in the cellular tissue of this iron frame. How far supe- 
rior is this as a work of art to any thing the ancients ever 
dreamed or thought of. The " Victoria Bridge," across the 
St. Lawrence, which is now building, is constructed after the 
same model. It will be two miles in length. Its estimated cost 
is $0,250,000. The iron tubes are to be supported by 24 piers. 
The centre span is 330 feet ; the others 242. The piers are 
fifteen feet wide, except the two centre ones, which are eighteen. 
These narrow structures of masonry are built to resist the flow 
and crushing weight of all the ice of this mighty river, with all 
the avalanches of ice that come rushing and tumbling from 2000 
miles of the river and lakes above, at a speed often of ten miles 
to the hour. When completed it will surpass in length, mas- 
sive solidity, strength and durability, any other similar work in 
the world. Though Americans boast their superiority in yachts 
and reapers, horse-taraevs and chess-players, yet as bridge- 
builders, the English have no peers. In the use of iron for 
rails, bridges and steamers, they can safely challenge the com- 
petition of the world. If the Great Eastern is ever floated out 
of the Thames, it will be the largest vessel that ever walked 
the water of any ocean. It is larger than Noah's ark. It is 



16 

ncarl}^ an eighth of a mile in length. It is made of 30,000 
plates of iron, united by 3,000,000 rivets, and -weighs 12,000 
tons. "We expect a visit from it. Money alone is needed to 
put the monster in motion, and drive it to our shores. The 
English Engineers are peculiarly bold and persevering. The 
tunnel under the Thames, the first railroad from Manchester to 
Liverpool, the bridge over the Menai Straits, and the iron 
steamer, the Great Eastern, -were all carried for^\-ard against the 
most powerful opposition and obstacles, both material and moral, 
apparently insurmountable. The inspiration of genius makes 
men bold, decided and enthusiastic. Men who conceive great 
ideas are usually very persevering. Their plans master them. 
A great invention absorbs the -whole attention, and the man talks 
of nothing else. There is a letter in existence written by Ma- 
rion de Lorme, in 1G41. It describes her visit to the Bicetre, 
the celebrated mad house of I'aris. She says : — " "We were 
crossing the court, and I, more dead than alive with fright, kept 
close to my companion's side, when a frightful face appeared 
behind some immense bars, and a hoarse voice exclaimed, 'I 
am not mad, I am not mad ! L have made a discovery that 
Tvovild enrich tbie co'.uitr}' that adopted it.' What has he dis- 
Cj^'cred ? asked our guide. Oh, answered the keeper, shrug- 
ging his shoulders, something trifling enough ; you would never 
guess it. It is the use of the steam of boiling water. His 
name is Solomon de Cans ; he came from Kormandy four years 
ago, to present to the king a statement of the -\\-onderful efli'cts 
that might be produced from his invention. To listen to him, 
vju woidd imagine that with steam you could navigate ships, 
move carriages ; in fact, there is no end to the miracles which he 
insists upon it could be performed." This man was so persist- 
ent in his appeals, that the king's minister to be rid of him put 
him in a mad house. Here he moaned out his weary plaint, "I 
am not mad, I am nut mad ! I have made a discovery !" And 
so he had ; but tlie ignorant court could not appreciate it. He 
puMi.'^hed a bouk on the power of steam and its uses, Avhich was 
afterwards embodied, to a considerable extent, in a work pub- 
lished by the Mav(piis of "Worcester, entitled " The Century of 



17 

Inventions." But poor Je Cans, who was more than a century 
in advance of his age, lost his Hberty in consequence of his 
noble discoveries. So an ignorant world often treats its scien- 
tific benefactors. 

The first surveyors of the railroad from Liverpool to ]\Ian- 
chester were mobbed by the owners of the soil ; their instru- 
ments were broken and they were driven off by violence. The 
men who proposed the road were hated by the land owners as 
much as if they had designed to convert their fields into camps 
for a standing army. Some years later, when a bill to incorpo- 
rate that road was before parliament, the engineer, Mr. George 
Stephenson, was examined by acute lawyers before the commit- 
tee of Parliament, as if he had been a spy of France plotting 
an invasion of the country. In the lower house, Sir Isaac Coffin 
denounced the project as a most flagrant imposiiion. He would 
not consent to see the widow's premises invaded. He asked in 
the most dignified, senatorial manner: " how would any person 
like to have a railroad under his parlor window ? What, I 
should like to knoAV," said he, "is to be done with all those who 
have advanced money in making and repairing turnpikes ? 
What with those who may still wish to travel in their own or 
hired carriages, after the fashion of their forefathers ? What is 
to become of coach-makers, harness-makers, and coachmen, inn- 
keepers, horse breeders and horse dealers ? Is the House aware 
of the smoke and noise, the hiss and the whirl, which locomotive 
engines, passing at a rate of eight or ten milf s an hour occasion ? 
Neither the cattle plowing in the fields n(»r grazing in the mead- 
ows could behold them witliout dismay ! Iron would rise in 
price 100 per cent., or more probably, be exhausted altogether! 
It would be the greatest nuisance, the most complete disturbance 
of ([uiet and comfort, in all parts of the kingdom, that the inge- 
nuity of man could invent !" Such were the groans of conser- 
vatism. But the bill was obtained at an expense of $135,000, 
and within one year after the road was built, land all along the 
line was selling at almost fabulous prices ; and the cattle plowed 
and fed in quiet ! The road was opened in 1830. The transit 
which used to be made in coaches, in four hours, was made by 
2 



18 

rail in half an hour, and the travel Avas tripled the first year. 
The animal saving to the public in money, to say nothing of 
time, was ^1,250,000 a year. Lords Derby and Seflon, who 
succeeded in forcing the road from their lands, afterwards pat- 
ronised a rival road on condition it should pass through their 
estates. Interest enlightens the blind. 

When the bill for the erection of a suspension bridge over 
the Danube at Buda-Pesth, was before the Diet of Hungary, in 
1829, the nobles were shocked by the proposition that they 
should be taxed for such a purpose. The Judex Curiae shed 
tears on the occasion and declared solemnly, that he would 
never jniss that ill-fated bridge, from the erectiun of which he 
should date the downfall of the Hungarian nobility. The bridge 
was only partially finished in 1841.), when the Hungarian rebel- 
lion broke out. Still it was so covered that advancing and 
retreating armies crossed it. The Au.strians endeavored to 
blow it up. A tun and a half of })Owder was fired at once, but 
the iron fabric stood firm. It was completed after the war and 
is now pronounced by the Hungarians " the eighth wonder of 
the world." When the bridge, which I have already described, 
was built over the valley of the Tyne, the people of Gateshead 
sorrowed over the innovation. One prominent citizen used to 
exclaim as he heard the steam hammer driving down the piles ; 
" There goes another nail in the coffin of Gateshead." Some 
people's religion is only a reverence for what is old and a hostil 
ity to everything new. Mere change even for the better is dis- 
agreeable to most men. Opinions soon harden into prejudices ; 
and modes of action at first adopted by imitation or caprice soon 
become fixed habits. Prejudices and habits form an invincible 
coat of mail to the conservative. When Fulton was experiment- 
injr with steam on the water, he made trial of a new boat on the 
Seine. It was not successful. Capitalists and officials turned 
upon him a cold shoulder at once ; but he, like all men who 
originate great plans, was importunate. He gained the ear of 
Napoleon. He advocated with enthusiasm his project of navi- 
gating the ocean by steam. The emperor was wear}' of him 
and said to the American ambassador, Mr. Livingstone : 



19 

" Debarrassez-moi de ce fou d' Americain ;" rid me of this fool 
of an American. It was easy to close the palace door against 
the stranger, but it was impossible to stifle, by an imperial edict, 
the stirrings of genius. The autocrat went down, but steam 
went up and Fulton's fame rose with it. 

Appended to Goldsmith's beautiful poem, " the Traveller," 
are a few pithy lines penned by Dr. Johnson. Among them are 
the following : 

" In every government thouirh terror reign, 
Though tyrant kings or tymnt laws restrain, 
How small of all that human hearts endure 
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure." 

This is sheer stoicism. To hearts panting for great deeds ; 
to brains teeming with new discoveries ; to hands full of latent 
enterprise, it is unspeakably fallacious. Tyrants and laws have 
often arrested the march of improvement, stifled the voice of 
freedom, crushed the defenders of liberty and extinguished hope 
in brave hearts. Ignorant tyrants and unequal laws have often 
stamped their age with immobiUty and moral death. IMonopo- 
lies, privileges, titles and corporate trusts in perpetuity, have 
been the agencies by which the hand of industry has been 
crippled. Until the close of the last session of the British Par- 
liament, the largest portion of her immense colonial possessions 
were governed by commercial corporations. The East India 
Company was an imperium in imperio, wielding a power supe- 
rior to that of any European monarchy. The larger part of 
British North America, a country exceeding in size the territory 
of the thirty-three United States, was governed by a corpora- 
tion. Indeed this entire continent, so far as English influence 
extends has been settled by chartered companies and by pro- 
prietors receiving their authority from the crown. That whole 
system of carrying on commerce and colonization by corporations 
and monopolies has been forever abolished. In past ages, the 
most important business of all nations has been transacted 
through the agency of corporations. Companies and guilds, 
special privileges secured by charters and grants, and exclusive 
monopolies have proved to be the greatest obstacles, next to 
royal prerogatives, to the progress of civil liberty. The institu- 



20 

tions which were once useful and necessary, l3j corrupt admin- 
istration of their power and funds, have hecome oppressive and 
injurious. The rotten boroughs of England which, till the par- 
tial reform of 1832,* hung like a millstone upon the neck of 
freedom, and tlie rights of franchise, are still agitating the Brit- 
ish empire from the Shetland Isles to Lizard Point, like the 
throes of a political earthquake. Their days are numbered. 
They will soon pass away and coming generations will wonder 
that the}' ever existed. The chief office of the European legis- 
lator now is to undo the work of his predecessors and remove 
old abuses sustained by law and use. This has been the office 
of philanthropists and reformers since the days of Luther ; and 
the wars which have deluged that continent in blood for three 
centuries, have arisen from the hostility of corporations, privi- 
le'^ed orders and titled imbeciles to the people's rights. There 
are some enterprises which cannot be conveniently carried on 
by individuals. In such cases a union of capital and influence 
is necessary ; but even then, it is fast becoming the general con- 
viction, that ordinary partnerships are preferable to chartered 
corporations. The numerous frauds that have grown out of our 
railroad and factory companies have made them objects of sus- 
picion and aversion to a majority of the honest yeomanry of the 
country. " Corporations," said Lord Coke, " cannot commit 
trespass, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have 
no souls." The public are beginning to think that they who 
manage them either have no souls or inevitably lose them, when 
they take office. 

IIow far are Corporations responsible ? This is a grave moral 
question. The highest pecuniary interests of the public are 
entrusted to them. A large portion of the wealth of the whole 
communitv is invested in them. Our temporal prosperity, in a 



* " There are," said Mr. Brijrht, in his speech at Birmingham, — " in the 
House of Commons, at present, .^SO members, (more than half,) whose whole 
number of constituents do not amount to more than 180,000; and there are, at 
the same time, in Parliament, 24 mcmbors whose constituents are upwaids of 
200,000 in number; and while the constituents of the 330 members are assessed 
to tiie property tax at £13,000,000, the constituents of the a4 members are 
assessed to the same tax at more than £24,000,000. 



21 

high degree, depends on the fidelity of our public agents. Re- 
cently, the confidence reposed in corporation ofBcials, has Leen 
grossly betrayed. It is fast becoming the general opinion that 
funds can not be safely invested in any institution managed by 
irresponsible directors. 

Millions of money have already been lost by the management 
of railroads. It seems probable, now, that most of the capital 
stock of the roads, already constructed, will be a dead loss to 
the owners. Many of the roads have been badly located to ac- 
commodate some ambitious president or favor some local interest. 
Rival roads have been built by disaffected parties, and both the 
old and the new investments have been rendered worthless. 
INIen have been induced to subscribe to the ca[.ital stock of new 
I'oads by exaggerated accounts of the freight and travel to be 
accommodated, and by the delusive hope of a sudden rise of 
land, in every village through which a road passes. These 
promises have been disappointed. Then, the intriguing direc- 
tors have advocated branch roads, to secure railroad faciUties 
for themselves or their friends, and these have proved a failure. 
Companies have incurred large debts, and at the same time 
large dividends have been declared and paid by borrowed mon- 
ey. This has been the pohc}^ of directors, till the roads they 
managed lost credit and became bankrupt ; then, the ingenious 
device of " fref erred stock " was invented, and capitalists were 
induced to risk large sums from the hope of increased interest 
with the best security. This plan preferred the new subscri- 
bers and deferred and robbed the ohl. It was wrojig in its in- 
ception and oppressive in its operation. This project soon failed? 
and bonds were issued pledging the capital stock of the holders 
for the payment of them. Each annual report announces to 
the stockholders an increase of income, but no dividends. The 
floating debts, too, increase with an overflowing treasury. The 
bond-holders find that they have been duped ; they get no inter- 
est. The increased expenses of running the roads absorb all of 
the income. They begin to inquire for a legal remedy. Tliey 
are gravely told that the law can not aid them. Railroads are 
new institutions. The common law has no decision by which 



22 

their riglits can be protected. They may seize the road, but 
they can not run it ; for they arc not the corporation. So the 
mortgagees begin to doubt whether tlieir lien upon the road is 
of any vaUie. Soon, they learn that great frauds have been 
committed by confidential agents of their favorite roads. Fic- 
titious stock has been issued. The law is again appealed to, but 
the oracles of Themis " palter in a double sense." There are 
no precedents. The villain must go " unwhipt of justice," 
because of the deficiencies of the law. If a poor, starving 
laborer steals a loaf of bread to satisfy his hunger, the law has 
a fearful penalty for the oftence. If a (jentlenian defrauds a 
company of thousands, or even millions of dollars, and retires to 
a private palace to enjoy the fruits of his robbery, the law has 
no nunishment for him. How strange that the hi^ihest crimes 
can not be punished. What a farce is our common law, if the 
greatest villains can not be reached by it. The statute law is 
our only remedy and that is only prospective. Bank officials 
are beginning to copy the frauds of those of railroads. Almost 
every week makes startling disclosures of robberies committed 
on a large scale ; and, what is very remarkable, few of the offen- 
ders are punished. 

The same state of things prevails in England. A recent 
number of the Edinburgh Review reveals the monstrous abuses 
which have been practiced upon the public by railroad agents, 
contractors, lawyers, engineers, directors and menhcrs of par- 
liment. These worthies seem to have been leagued together to 
cheat the stockholders of their honest dues. More than 150 
members of parliament are directly interested in railroad specu- 
lations, in sums varying from X291,000 downwards to a single 
share. The parliamentary expenses for securing charters have 
varied from .£G50 to £3000 per mile! In one contest, £57, 
000 were spent among six counsellors and twenty solicitors. 
The sums expended in legal and parliamentary intrigues, for 
nine years past, have reached £480,000, an average of £53,- 
000 per annum ! Enormous prices have been paid for land 
damages. In one case £120,000 were paid for land said to be 
worth only £5000. . 



23 

The frauds perpetrated by agents, lawyers, politicians and 
officials are truly astounding. The light is just beginning to 
shine upon the secret operations of men whom the public have 
trusted and honored in this country. It is now a common say- 
ing among railroad stockholders, " I have no confidence in the 
managers of these roads. Property is not safe in their hands, 
I mean to sell every share I own and leave these rotten institu- 
tions to their fate." But is there no remedy for these abuses ? 
Must the business of the whole community be arrested because 
honest men can not be found to manage public trusts ? The 
stockholders are generally so numerous that they can not meet 
in person to investigate the proceedings of their agents. They 
must trust somebody. If faithful servants can not be found, 
society must be dissolved into its original elements, and no im- 
provement can be made except by individuals. But wo are not 
yet reduced to this dilemma. Reform will do the work for us. 
The men who have proved recreant to their trust must be remov- 
ed, and honest men installed in their places. The laws must be 
altered to meet the present wants of the public, and corporate 
pjroperty may yet be safe. 

In our country, stocks in turnpikes and bridges have been the 
favorites of capitalists. They have been ready to invest their 
funds in them, because they have generally yielded liberal divi- 
dends. Tlie public good is seldom considered by the proprie- 
tors. Their object is gain ; and they care not at what expense 
of money or inconvenience to others it is acquired. In the 
early history of the country, our legislatures gave unlimited 
powers to such corporations under the impression that they were 
public benefactors, as, in many instances, they doubtless were. 
In recent times, charters are rarely granted, in our State, with- 
out a reserved right to amend them if the public good requires 
it. This is a democratic doctrine which has received much 
abuse from conservatives, but time and experience have demon- 
strated its utility beyond a doubt. The public good should in all 
cases, oven-ide all privileges and all merely legal claims of individ- 
uals. If the government can take my person and compel me to 
fight for my country, a fortiori, it may take my property 



24 

for tlie common defence. The right of "eminent domain" 
is essential to the existence of anj government. It cannot de- 
fend itself without it. If the life and estate of an individual 
may be rightfully taken for public uses, is the property of a 
soulless corporation more sacred ? Can the creature of law 
insult its creator and refuse submission to his reasonal)le requisi- 
tions ? It is an axiom of our governments, both of the United 
States and of each of the separate states, that " all power is 
derived from the people." The legal voters are the sovereigns. 
They can create and they destroy, when the greatest good of 
the whole rc([uires it. The highest Courts in the country are 
guided by these principles. When the public call im})eratively 
for improvements, chartered rights must yield. So the Supreme 
Court of the United States has repeatedly decided ; and we 
have reason to believe that they will be guided by a regard for 
the public welfare in all similar decisions for the future. The 
constitution of the United States was established expressly " to 
promote the general welfare ;" and all its departments, legisla- 
tive, executive and judicial, ought to be .administered with a 
strict regard to this fundamental principle of the organic law of 
the land. When the country was sparsely settled and the tillers 
of the soil were poor, it was considered sound policy by our leg- 
islatures to invite capitalists to build roads and bridges and take 
toll of travellers for their remuneration. The exigencies of the 
times called for such enactments. That day has now gone by. 
The people have become wealthy ; and, wherever the public 
wish to travel, the property of the community ought to build 
and support convenient bridges and highways. Toll-gates are 
contrary to the genius of our free institutions and are only tol- 
erated from necessity. Where men travel on foot or in their 
own carriages, in a country as populous and wealthy as New 
England, they should no more be taxed for the privilege than 
they should be taxed for the sun and air. It is for the interest 
of every man, whether he remains at home or scours the coun- 
try, to aid in the construction of free roads and free bridges. 
If he be a farmer or a mechanic, his produce or his manufac- 
tures must be carried over those roads, though he may never 



25 

pass out of the shadow of his own house or shop. Every com- 
munity is a joint-stock company. That which benefits one 
ultimately benefits all. The market man who brinies his prod- 
uce over a free bridi^e can sell it cheaper than he who pays toll. 
The drover who drives his beeves and sheep over a free road 
can afford to give a higher price for them than he who pays a 
fee every twelve miles at a turnpike gate. Corporations having 
no souls seldom " feel for others' wo." Shylock, in their view, 
was a model financier. They exact all that " was nominated 
in the bond." 

" I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak : 
I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 
I'll not be made a ioi't and dull-eyed fool, 
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 
To christian intercessors. Follow not ; 
I'll have no speaking; I'll have my bond." 

History records only one instance in which a toll gate was open- 
ed without the proffered fee. That occurred in the biography 
of the celebrated Captain Gilpin. The poetic record stands thus : 

" And still as fast as he drew near 
'Twas wonderful to view. 
How in a trice the turnpike men 
Their gates wide open threw." 

But this generous act was done by mistake as appears by the 

veracious record which recites his unfortunate return on the 

same track : 

" And now the turnpike gates again 

Flew open in short space ; 
The toll-men thinking as before 

That Gilpin rode a race." 

Like most officials, they expected a doceur In private. Disap- 
pointment even to such men, maybe '' blessings in disguise." 

Corporations are usually fond of litigation. They are very sen- 
sitive to the least encroachment upon their lejal rights. They 
have a high respect for the law when it promotes their interest ; 
but when the lavryer's bull gores the former's ox, " that alters 
the case.'' Insurance companies are very rigid in exacting as- 
sessments, but very reluctant to pay losses. The general rule 
has been to contest a claim where there is the slightest legal 



26 

ground to evade its pa3'mei)t ; to enforce a claim where the de- 
fendant can be badgered into submission. The law seems more 
t rrible when it is backed by a wealthy corporation. The agents 
of such august bodies seem to regard themselves as exempt from 
the claims of the "higher law," so long as they can plead in 
excuse for their ojiprcssive acts, " the vote of the company.'''' 
Toll bridges and tunijiikcs like the guilds and corporate soci- 
eties of mechanics, in the dark ages, have been useful in their 
day, but like those fraternities, the}'- are the offspring of igno- 
rance, and poverty, anti social in their tendency and hostile to 
the best interests of the masses. Their moral influence, in a 
wealthy and intelligent community, is evil only and that con- 
tinuall3\ Thej' lead to contention, promote quarrels and excite 
litigation. They prevent trade and interrupt social intercourse. 
Even the natural barriers of mountains and rivers, provoke hos- 
tilities between the dwellers upon opposite sides of them. 

'■ Lands iutcrsectcd bv a nnrrow fritli 
Abhor each otlier. Jlountnins intcrjios'd 
Make enemies of nations, who had else 
Like kindred drops been mingled into one " 

" Rivals," says Dr. Trench, " in the primary sense of the word 
are those who dwell on the [opposite] banks of the same stream.'' 
A toll-bridge brink's them no nearer tofrether. A free bi-idge 
would make their interests one, and prevent rivalship. The 
villages of Xorwich and Hanover would have been more wealthy, 
populous and prosperous than they now arc, if they had taxed 
themselves, twenty-five years ago, to build and support a free 
bridge across the Connecticut. In our own little community, 
most articles of food command city prices. Local causes have 
operated to enhance the market value of every kind of table 
provisions. Emigration has taken the young and enterjtrising 
farmers and mechanics from our own town, to our cities, manu- 
facturing towns and to the "West, hence the amount of ])roduce 
raised for consumption and sale, is much less than it formerly 
was. (hir sup])lics are now to a great extent, furnished from 
Vermont. V\\ c^m not procure them at home, if we would. 
The railroad, on the oj.p.isite b.nk, like a net, takes most of the 
surj>lus jiroduce of the surrounding c ii.ti-y to the cities below 



27 

us. Besides a convenient depot to arrest the market man, at 
some seasons of the year, .speculators, scour the adjacent coun- 
try and buy at the doors of the farmers every animal, vegetable 
and edible root which tliey can possibly spare. If wc would have 
our tables supplied, wo must pay tlio Vermont farmer an extra 
price for his time and his toll in bringing across the river that 
which he could as well sell at his own door. A toll ^ate or 
ferry, operates like an embargo on all inland trade. It repels 
travel and traffic. It harms our friends and aids our rivals. It 
lessens our patronage, cripples our prosperity and diminishes 
our population. It is estimated that our village consumes 3000 
cords of wood every year. About one half of this fuel is drawn 
across the river. When the old bridge was in existence, it was 
the doctrine of the corporation that it was an infringement of 
their legal rights to cross the river on the ice. Of course, not 
only the wood brought from Vermont, but the ice taken from 
the river for summer use, was required to pay toll. Thus the 
price of the commonest necessaries of life was greatly enhanc- 
ed. The property of the college and of the community around 
it will be essentially promoted by a free bridge. There is an 
eloquence in its strong timbers and unobstructed pathway, that 
invites patronage and wins the market man and the traveller to 
our village. The student whose limited purse yields not the re- 
quired fee for extending his daily walk to the green hills of 
Vermont, no longer wanders like a disconsolate ghost, without 
his obolus on this side the river. Visitors who honor with their 
presence, our anniversaries, will no longer pay a tax for setting 
foot upon our soil ; and those periodical contests waged for more 
than half a century, by inconsiderate youths with the Cerberus 
that kept the gate, have received their final quietus. If any 
event of our brief existence here should call forth our gratitude 
to divine Providence, it is the abolition of old abuses and the 
enlargement of our freedom. Liberty to go where we please, 
is as dear as the right to think what we please. Freedom of 
motion is as desirable as freedom of conscience ; indeed it is 
often more productive of peace and contentment. We are t9ld. 
in oriental story, of an industrious citizen who lived seventy 



28 

years Avithiu tlic walls of his native city -without ever passing 
through its gates into the adjacent country. The monarch of 
that cit\' heard of his domestic hahits and wishing to try the 
effect of a compulsory residence upon the aged man, forbade 
hy a decree, liis leaving the city upon any occasion during the 
rest of his life. This prohibition broke his spirit and he pined 
away and died of grief at the loss of his freedom. 

It is true the exaction of money, at a gate, docs not operate 
like an armed police to prevent our passage, still it exercises a 
moral restraint almost as coercive. When we walk or drive, 
we choose the road that is unobstructed and shun that which is 
legally or illegally barred. The state of Vermont, has not a 
single toll bridge within its limits. The words Avhich Cowper 
applied to fugitives from oppression, in England, apply to us: 

" And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave 
Tliat parts us, arc emancipate and loos'd." 

Massachusetts, too, has made those expensive bridges Avhich lead 
into Boston free to all who come and go. The tendency of 
public opinion is toward the abolition of tolls every where on 
bridges and turnpikes. There is now one point on the Connecti- 
cut where travellers may cross the river without paying for the 
privilege. A work of emancipation for tliis noble stream has 
been commenced, succcssfull_v prosecuted and triumphantly com- 
pleted through six n)iles of its length. The present generation 
v.ill see the entire four hundred miles of its channel liberated 
from the odious incumbrance of corporate privileges which ob- 
struct social progress and claim exemption from those laws which 
govern individuals. It has been demonstrated, too, that a land- 
ing place can be found in Vermont for a bridge that is owned iu 
Kew Hampshire : that our neighb-rs not only do not oppose the 
construction of a pier upon their soil, but their benevolence is 
greater than our faith. They furnish the land and build the 
Mbntment of their own choice. They take the lead in the enter- 
l . They begin the work and the bridge advances from their 
side to ours, in fact, had it not been for the ingenious objec- 
tion* of counsel, learned iu the law, posterity would never have 
known the legal difficukies the petitioners li:i 1 to encounter. It 



29 

cost the parties in liti^Mtion, at least, §1000 to demonstrate by 
the successive decisions of three N. H. Courts, the le^al possibility 
of a free bridge across the Connecticut ; and had it not been 
for the prompt and beneficent action of the trustees of Dart- 
mouth College in aid of the enterprise, another siege as long as 
that of Troy might have been sustained by the Supreme Court 
of the United States. But no ■wily Calchas, " scelerumque 
inventor Ulysses" «ould have forced their wooden horse within 
that sacred citadel. His entrance was effectually barred by im- 
memorial usage, by previous decisions and by constitutional 
provisions. The bridge with all its interests is safe. It is open 
and free. Let no Vandal hand be raised to deface this noble 
structure or injure one fibre of its timl)ers. Palsied be the arm 
that shall aid in its demolition and speechless be the tongue that 
would plead for its disfranchisement. Long may it stand as a 
monument of patriotic effort, of generous contributions, of lib- 
eral concession and successful compromises. All parties ought 
to rejoice that controversy is ended, legal rights protected, the 
public welfare promoted and ihe seal of universal approbatioQ 
set upon the finished labors of the town. 

At the close of the address. Prof. Crosby said, that " Having 
heard from the Historian, we would now like a Theological view 
of the subject," and called upon Rev. Dr. Bournes, of Norwich 
University, who spoke as follows : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — If I had any notion that a se t 
speech were expected from me this day, I certainly should not 
now present myself before you. I am not at all prepared to 
make a formal address to you, but have been asked by a Com- 
mittee to come here from Norwich to express the joy of our villa- 
gers, at the completion of the Bridge, and to assure the people 
of Hanover that we most cordially sympathize with them in their 
satisfaction at this happy event. We know that Roads — the 
means of communication between nations, and villages, and men 
— are highly valuable. They are the very bonds of affection 
between neighbors. They bind them together by cords of love 
and mutual regard — and bridges are emphatically the knots 
that tie them together. We feel deeply thankful for the pros- 
pect that this may be so in the case of our two villages. 



30 

V>'^e will send you our goutl rock-ma|ile, our beech and our 
lurch wood to warm you in winter. Wc will send sugar too, and 
eggs and butter, and many other good things to the ladies of 
Hanover, to help them to sustain creditably the load and agony 
of their hosiiitalities at Connnencement, and we feel sure we 
shall be abundantly paid for these things. 

But we hope for more than thesf merely material advantages 
from this Free Bridge. We hope the two peiiple will Ijc better 
acquainted with one another. AVe feel sure, too, that if we see 
each other oftcner we shall like one another better. The sep- 
aration between two villages is oftentimes the greater as the dis- 
tance between them is less. Hanover people and Norwich peo- 
ple know more of. and see more of the people of Boston than 
the}' do of each other. We hope this ma}^ not be so in future. 
Ko peojile, no man can live long alone, cut off from neighbors 
without being the worse for it. 

Little villages that are shut out from the rest of the world 
become selfish and inordinately conceited. They cannot com- 
pare themselves with other people, and so it happens that they 
learn to think far too much of themselves, and too meanly of 
other people. They resemble in this respect a boy of whom I 
once heard. I do not pretend to know his name very accurate- 
ly, but I believe he was a near relative of the celebrated Mrs. 
Partini:jton. This boy thought his father's farm was the very 
finest piece of land in all the world — he knew it was better than 
any other place — any bod}' could see it had the best location 
in all the world, for just you stand in front of father's door and 
look up and you would see it is rigid under the centre of Heav- 
en. People of small villages have too much of this same tem- 
per in them. But roads and bridges dispel these delusions. 
Tliev may diminish somewJiat individual satisfaction but they 
f^rea'tly improve a society — make them more kind, liberal, and 
social.' We rejoice then most sincerely in the completion of this 
Free Bridge. 

I must say a few words in reference to one part of the ad- 
mirable address we have jtist heard from the learned and elo- 
quent gentleman who has preceded me. I should not wish to 
stand forward as the advocate of old fogyisra. AYe are by no 
means the enemies of progress. But I think we shouM not for- 
get that the old bridge in its da}' did good service. We cannot 
icin in any general condemnation of corporations, nor in any 
"•eneral <:r -- • ;' execration against them as being always corrujjt, 
and in thei. ' nature injurious to a country. We cannot de- 

ny that corpuriu. - and companies have oftentimes been selfish 



on 

ol 

and exacting. We cannot deny that they have too often held 
back a conimuiiit}^ in their advancement to prosperitv. But 
■ffithal this they have done good service. The country at large 
is greatly indebted to companies and corporations. There is a 
time — there is a certain stage of society in which corporations 
are the very best things for them ; >ve cannot get along without 
them . 

"When a country is young and poor, and finds employment for 
all its means and money in private works, it needs corporations 
to execute public work^. If, at this stage the rich men do not 
combine themselves into corporations, and execute public works, 
these works will not be done at all. The general interest suffers, 
and the permanent improvement of the country is neglected. 
The part of wisdom is to accept the services of these corpora- 
tions wlien we want them ; to give them thanks for the good 
they do us, but to retain them no longer than is absolutely nec- 
essary ; to use corporate bridges rather than have none, but to 
build free ones as soon as possible. 

And if corporations cling rather too tenaciously to their prop- 
erty, if they ?re disposed to sacrifice the public welfare in some 
degree to their private profit, we must resist them and shake 
them off. But when we have done this good work, when we are 
clearly out of their hands, let us not cherish ill will against those 
corporators, but offer them the right hand of fellowship, and invite 
them to share with us in the common benefit we have achieved 
for all. They may have been too keen for gain, but in these days 
who can condemn his brother on a charge like this ? who is fit 
to throw tha first stone at them ? Let this bridge cover any 
little chasm or rent that may have been made in our society by 
a perhaps too eager assertion of personal rights, too prolonged a 
defence of personal property ; let it. unite all in love. We are 
so accustomed when we hear or speak of a new country to think 
of Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, or some of those places in the far 
West, that we forget the age of these towns we live in ; we forget 
that they are still really very young — very new places. Neither 
of these villages or towns is yet one hundred years old. I find it 
stated in Thompson's History of Vermont, that in 17G1, 
THREE men came into the town of Norwich and went and pitch- 
ed their tent on the margin of the Connecticut, and at that 
time there were two men living in Hanover. 

Surely when we take facts like these into account we should 
not complain that corporations still exists amongst us, we should 
rather rejoice that we have so soon began to free ourselves from 
them. 



OZ 



"\Vo '>f Vermont do not yield to tlie men of Hanover in our 
sen=;o of t\\o benefit to bo derived from a Free Bridge — nay, 
more, we claim that wc have from the very first been a^Yare of 
the value of it — from the first, too, we have looked forward 
confidently to the time when a Free bridge would span cliis 
beautiful River, and one, at least, of our citizens gave clear 
proof of his admirable foresight in this particular, and also of 
his determination to assist, at least to throw no impediment in 
the way of accomplishing this good work. Doctor Lewis always 
said there ouglit to be a Free JJridge between these towns — he 
ought to have the credit of his wisdom and his desire to promote 
the public welfare. When the corporation were about to raise 
tlieir first bridge, they applied to Dr. Lewis to buy the land on 
the Vermont side for a landing, but he would not sell it. He 
leased it for twenty years to them, on condition that he and his 
family should always cross toll free. He never did sell the 
landing place. He never would sell it. 

This is now, I believe, tho fourth bridge that has been erected 
at this point. I trust it may long remain to join these Towns 
ia friendship and kindly neigliborhood. We invite all Hanove- 
rians to cross over and see us. We think we have greener hills 
than you have. We think we have plcasanter roads and drives 
than you have. We invite you to come and see them and enjoy 
the benefits of them. We invite all ladies and gentlemen. We 
are selfish in giving this invitation. We expect much pleasure 
from the increased intercourse between these villages. We have 
often derived great benefit already from your visits. The last 
person who crossed the first bridge before its fall was a messen- 
o-er for the Doctor — we hope we shall not often need the Doc- 
tor amongst us, but when we do, we shall hope to see him 
speedily and shall make him welcome. 

And those Wandering Ghosts of whom the learned gentlemen 
has spoken, as Hitting along these New Hampshire shores. If 
there be any of them, of wasted forms, emaciated with absti- 
nence, exhausted with application and study — tottering along 
for relaxation and a little wholesome exercise, we invite them to 
cross this Free Bridge, to come to our side, to refresh them- 
selves, to renew their strength, to gain new vigor that they may 
return and resume their labors, and be able to go forth healthy, 
resolute, thoroiighly furnished, complete in body and mind, to 
do service for their country as scholars, men and citizens. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I must conclude as I began, by say- 
in'' that Norwich deeply sympathizes with you on this happy 
event. We most heartily join with you in thanking God that we 



33 

have been able v.'ithout serious loss or accMent to com;il'jte tbii 
Bridge. 

At the coiiclusiou 'if Dr. Ilournes' snjocli, Av'iich wa; rocoived 
with much a])plausc, tho chairman remarked that die services of 
the day would be deficient with<jut a little Phil')sophy, and called 
upon Prof. Patterson, who furnished it in the following happj 
manner : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — I do not propose at this time, 
to do so unwise a thing as to follow the able and olo<iucnt ad- 
dress to which sve have had the pleasure of listening, with any 
extended remarks of mine. The best speech I can make, un- 
der the circumstances, is to say ditto to Mr. Burke. 

I am gla'l however of this unexpected opportunity to con- 
gratulate my fellow citizens of boch Norwich and Hanover, 
upon the completion of our free bridge. The committee of the 
town who have had the oversight and direction of this matter, 
have ably dischai-ged their duties, and the work is consummated. 

There it stands, strong and free, stretching its long arms to 
either shore of our beautiful river, and clasping in its firm em- 
brace two sister states, as if impatient of their separation. In 
its progress it has been a " Bridge of Sighs," but in its com- 
pletion, it is a pledge of harmony .and prosperity. 

We may well believe that posterity will number our bridge 
among the distinguished works of this age, for like the bridges 
of Trajan and Caesar so celebrated in history, it has been built 
in times of war, and like those noted structures, it will doubtless, 
be greatly promotive of the arts of peace. It will not only ex- 
tend the area of friendly social intercourse and good neighbor- 
hood, and add to the convenience and pleasure of every citizen, 
but opening a free channel between the green and fertile hills of 
Vermont, and the not less kind, but more exacting soil of our 
Granite State, it must induce travel, quicken trade, create en- 
terprisa and add to the prosperity of every interest of society, 
through an extended section of both States. 

I would not limit my congratulations to the adjacent villages 
and sister Institutions thus drawn into a more intimate rela- 
tion, but would extend them to all of the citizens of the towns 
in which they are located, for it opens two markets in place of 
one, and though it may create competition, it will enlarge the 
sphere of business and enterprise, and thus give increased value 
to labor, personal property and real estate. Monopolies can 
3 



34 

rarely be extensively and perraanently useful or profitable. 
But even if it -wore not so, no people ever lost anything, in the 
long run, l)y an act of patriotic, generous public spirit. 

A free and unobstructed passage across the river at this point 
is demanded, not only for our present convenience, but for our 
future prosperity as a community. 

Only a few days since, in a conversation ^Yith some gentlemen 
in Concord in relation to locating a court in this place, they start- 
ed the objccti in, and it Avas their only objection, that we had no 
bridge over the Connecticut. I had the extreme satisfaction of 
being able to state to those gentlemen that we had a bridge, a 
free bridge, a bridge " born and bred in courts" and havmg a 
natural proclivity to Judges and Lawyers, and able to endure 
any amount of good usage from the members of the bar, and I 
extended to them a cordial invitation to come and locate among 
us, if the anticipated change in the organization of the courts 
should ever occur. 

We have a just pride in having erected the first free bridge 
over the Connecticut, but I venture to prophesy that it will be 
the first of a series of free bridges and that we shall not long 
enjoy our blessing alone. But there is another aspect to the 
subject. A bridge may be made a study as a work of art. 

A modern bridge properly constructed is in some sort a his- 
tory and illustration of science, and it is not a little singular 
that the cultivated nations of antiquity were so slow in discov- 
ering and apj)lying the principles of science involved in such 
structures. It is said that at Athens, even in the age in which 
Pericles adorned the metropolis with those monuments of archi- 
tectural genius, whose beauty and perfection of art have made 
their ruins the wcnder and the study of succeeding ages, there 
was no bridge across the river which intercepted the most fre- 
quented thoroughfare of the city. But because ancient Athens 
flourlslied in spite of her want of a bridge, I see no reason why 
our little Athens should not be made to flourish with one. 

Ti'ue science is the Poutifex Maximus who works in all mate- 
rial and in all time, and is trammeled by no prescriptive rights or 
slavish 1 everence to the past. 

We have come together in no spirit of unkinduess to exult 
over that venerable bridge, 

" That lay erewhilc a holocaust 
From out whose ashy womb," 

our nobler, freer structure, Phenix like lias risen, but as citizens 
to congratulate each other on the completion of a public work. 



35 

The day is auspicious, and whatever may have been our acci- 
dental relation to the enterprise hitherto, let all partake of the 
spirit of these rejoicings. Here let all differences be bridged, 
and so lon"^ as this work shall stand a monument of the enter- 
prise and public spirit of the people, so long may it be made a 
channel for the interchange of neighborly hospitahties and so- 
cial friendship. 

William H. Duncan, Esfj., was now called upon by the Pres- 
ident, to edify the audience with a legal view of the case in 
hand. And that they ivere edified was evident from the atten- 
tion given to and the applause that followed the subjoined 
remarks : — • 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — When I was told that there was 
to be a celebration, and that speeches were to be made on ac- 
count of the completion — and upon the occasion of the accept- 
ance, by the Town of Hanover — of the first Free Bridge over 
Connecticut River, I could not help being reminded of one of 
our most distinguishing national peculiarities, which is that of 
speech making upon every conceivable occasion. I also could 
not help thinking, that the man, who attempted a speech upon 
such a subject, ought to possess the facility and the power which 
some one attributed to the younger Pitt, to wit: — The ability 
to speak a King's speech off-hand, upon the spur of the moment. 
But we found the man, and the right man, too, for the occasion, 
and what a flood of learning has he poured out upon the subject ; 
it is like one of the spring freshets of our own River, or rather 
I should say we have had a White Mountain avalanche of liter- 
ature upon all the famous bridges of either ancient or modern 
times. 

If the opening of a great line of Railroad — the completion 
of a Canal — or the introduction of the Cochituate water into 
Boston, or the Croton into New York, is thought worthy of 
being celebrated by long processions, and still longer speeches, 
by waving banners, and exultant music, all conspiring to form a 
festal scene of spontaneous, universal joy and congratulation — 
why should not we, in our quiet and beautiful village, in our 
more quiet, and less ostentatious manner, celebrate an event 
which contributes, relatively speaking, as much to our comfort 
and welfare, as does the Railroad to a whole community, or as 
the introduction of a new supply of water to a great city. 

But, Sir, this occasion carries me back, far back into the past. 



36 

I tiiiiik oF the contrast bot'.vcea this section of the coauitrj, as 
it now is, as to its facilities for travel and transportatii^n, and 
what it was sixty or seventy years since, when a charter was 
obtained tor building a Toll ]3ridge over the Connecticut, be- 
tween thio place and Norvvlch. The charter was obtained a')0nt 
ITO-t. Trevious to this time a largo part of the heavy trade of 
this part of the country Avas carried on with Hartford and Xew 
York, by means of boats upon the river, and sloops and schoon- 
ers upon the Sound. The roads between this place and Boston 
were so poor, that Madam Smith, the wife of Professor Smith, 
formerly of the College, was obliged to make her bridal tour 
from Boston to this place horseback. 

A large part of the capital for building the Bridge was fur- 
nished by the Merchants of Boston, not for the sake of making 
a profitable investment, but with the intention of diverting the 
trade of Northern A^'ermont ffom Hartford and New York to 
Boston. The Higginsons, the Salisburys, the Phillipses were 
among the stockholders, — names distinguished for mercantile 
honor and probity, and which have been inhericed, and worthily 
worn by many of their descendents. 

The building of this Bridge was the first link in that chain of 
Internal Improvement, which has done so much towards devel- 
oping the resources, and which has added so immensely to the 
comfort and material prosperity of this section of the country. 

The second link in this chain of Internal Improvement was 
the construction of the Fourth New Hampshire Turnj/ike. A 
charter was obtained in 1800 for making a road from a point on 
the East bank of Connecticut River, in Lebanon, nearly oppo- 
site White River, to a point la the West bank of the Merrimack 
River, either in the town or Salisbury or Boscawen, with a 
branch road from the Easterly abutment of the White River 
Falls Bridge, running south-easterly to intersect with the main 
trunk. This has now become, I believe, a public highway. 

The third link in this chain of improvement was the building 
of the White River Falls Locks and Canals, which were char- 
tered in LS07, and completed in 1810, at anexper.se of nearly 
forty thou.-^aud dollars, — an enterprise set on foot and com{)letcd 
by a single individual, then a young man, a little more than 
thirty years of age. President D wight, in his tour through 
New England in 1800, speaking of overcoming the difficulties 
in the navigation of Connecticut River at the White River Falls 
says, " at present the ([uantity of business is insufficient to jus- 
tify the expense necessary for this purpose." In 1812, speak- 
ing of this undertaking, he says, " my expectations have been 



37 

aritlci[.;ite<l by a period of many years." I '.vonld say of this 
enterprise, tliat for neady forty years, it was to irs proprietor a 
source of almost constant lltigiition, of excessive annoyance and 
anxiety, and at the same time of mr^st ample ami satisfactory 
returns. 

It is now a little more than thirty years shiee the completion 
of the Erie Canal. Its great success roused all the men of en- 
terprise, and led them to form projects for cutting canals wh.er- 
ever practicahle or profitable. A plan was set on fuot about 
1828 for makiiiL; a canal on the banks of the Connecticut, from 
the Hampshire and Hampden Canal in Northampton, Massachu- 
setts, to Larnet, Vermont, a distance of one hundred and sixty- 
five miles, thereby furnishing water communication by means of 
this Canal, the Hampshire and Hampden Canal, and the Far- 
mington Canal, with New Haven, Connecticut, a distance of 
two hundred and fifty-one miles. A great many of the men 
of pith and mark, residing in or U'^ar the valley of the Connec- 
ticut from the Canadian line to Hartford and New Haven, in 
Connecticut, in the several States of Vermont, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, were interested in this project. 

The late Henry L. Ellsworth, then of Hartford, Connecticut, 
was one of these men. He advocated this enterprise by speak- 
ing and writing most favorably in its behalf. 

James Hillhouse, of New Haven, Connecticut, was another 
of these men — a man of Herculean frame, with an intellect to 
match — a man of character and intiuence not only in his own 
State, but in the National Councils, crowning a long life of 
political honors by serving as a Senator of the United States, 
an office under our government second only to the Chief Magis- 
tracy of the Country. He was a politician — I beg pardon — a 
statesman in those days when in order to hold high office, a man 
must have been a man of refinement — of cultivation — a gen- 
tleman — he must have possessed not only political distinction, 
but must have held also a high social position. I recollect well 
seeing the venerable and distinguished gentleman, when on a 
visit to our section of the country, manifesting all the ardor and 
enthusiasm of youth in this great project. 

Col. L. Baldwin, Civil Engineer of the United States, was 
another of these men. Under his direction a corps of engi- 
neers, composed of young men, many of whom became distin- 
guished in after life, among them a son of Governor Clinton, 
made a reconnoisance of the valley, and if I recollect right the 
line of the canal was staked out from the northern terminus of 
the Hampshire and Hampden Canal to Barnct, Vermont. 



3S 

DeWitt Clinton, then at the zenith of his power and his fame, 
examined the country with a view to tliis undeitakin;^ from New 
Ilavcn, Connecticut, to Barnet, Vermont, givinij; to the project 
his advice, his encouragement, and tlie results of his most ample 
experience. 

At about the same time there was a rival project for improv- 
ing the rivLi'. by deepening its channel and increasing the size 
of its lucks and canals, so tliat steamboats of a light draught 
could pass fr>:m Hartford to the Fifteen Mile Falls. But this 
project was tlirown into the shade hy the contemplated canal. 
Fortunately- for the country, neither of these projects succeeded. 
It would have been time, labor, and money thrown away. 

Of the present railroad system I need not speak. Some of 
you have pleasant, verj^ pleasant associations connected with it, 
and some of you have associations connected with it that are 
neither pleasant nor profitalle. 

But what a contrast between to-day and sixty or seventy 
years since. We are rushed along from Boston to this place 
by rail in as many houra as it took good Madam Snaith days to 
make her bridal tour betv\een the two places. 

It is net xai three-fourths of a century since Col. Enoch 
Hale built the first Bridge across Connecticut River. This was 
at Bellows Falls. Dr. Dwight, in his " Travels through New 
England," says that " when Col. Hale first formed the design 
of building this Bridge, its practicability Avas generally denied, 
and the undertaker was laughed at for seriously pi'oposing so 
romantic a project." He built the bridge at an expense of 
twenty-seven hundred dollars, and it ruined him. 

Belknap, speaking of this bridge in 1792, says " it is the 
only bridge across Connecticut River, but it is in contemplation 
to erect one thirty-six miles above, at the jNIiddle Bar of Wliite 
River Falls." 

If the great and good Dr. Dwight, who was truly, wdiile he 
lived, the Jupiter Tonans of the New England Church, and in 
Connecticut one of the Dii Majores in the State — a man of 
wdiom 3^ou might, almost without exaggeration, sa^^ that when he 

" Shook liis amlirosial locks, and gave the nod," 

it was truly to the lay gentry, and the inferior clergv, I use the 
term not invidiously, 

" Tlie stamp of Fate, the sanction of a God," 

if he thought it worth while to speak of building the Bridge at 
Bellows Falls — if the learned Belknap thought it not unworthy 
of the historic pen to record the intoition of Imilding the White 



39 

River Falls Bridge — surely it will not be said of us that we arc 
here to-day cxcliangin;^ congratulations upon the accomplish- 
ment of a trivial, or an unimportant event. 

It is an old adage, that " we should speak well of a bridge 
that has carried us well over" — of the Old Bridge let us all 
say, " Peace to its ashes," and may all the ill-^\ill, hard feel- 
ing and bad blood that may have been engendered by the late 
contest be from this time, henceforth, and forever, with its ashes 
in the deep Avaters of the river buried. 

So much for the material aspect of this subject. I had 
intended to say something of the historical associations connect- 
ed with the places around the Bridge — something of Ledyard, 
that world-renowned traveller. Near the place where the 
Bridge now stands, he felled, or stole the lofty pine which 
he made into a " dug out," launched it upon the stream, and 
clothed in a bear skin, his only companions an Ovid and a New 
Testament, made that wundruas voyage down the river in this 
primitive bark. But I fear that voice, time, and the patience 
of my hearers would all fail mc, and I forbear. 

It only remains for me to perform a duty, which has been im- 
posed u}ion me by the citizens of the place, a duty, at once, 
pleasing and sad. 

We have been informed, (addressing himself to the speaker of 
the occasion) that it is your intention, to use a technical phrase, 
" to take up your connections with the College," and take to 
yourself a new home upon the distant and opposite bank of the 
" Great Father of Waters." Allow me to assure you that we 
have all heard of this with feeUngs of regret, of gi'i^at, and deep 
regret. For a quarter of a century we have known aiid highly 
appreciated your many excellent social and civil virtues. 

As a man, as a citizen, as a magistrate, we have ever found 
you " ready for every good word and work." We can offer 
you no higher or better wishes— and this w^e do from the depth 
of o\u' hearts — than that in your new and distant home your 
health, your prosijcrity, your happiness, may be equal to your 
unbounded energy, your unlimited versatility. 

At the close of Mr. Duncan's speech. Dr. Crosby remarked 
that the audience had now listened to History, Theology, Philos- 
ophy, and Law, and asked if a medical opinion was desired, to 
which interrogatory a decided affirmative was given. " I have 
then," said he, " but a single remark to make of the old Bridge: 
from the violence of its convulsions and the len;rth of time it 



40 

was iVlii:^, it mast have liaJ a strong coustltution." Tln^ cIkiIi- 
man rurLhcr said : — " It is important that our Bridge bliuuld iiave 
a name. Many years since, as Mr. Duncan Las told us, Julai 
Ledyard launehed his self-wrought " dug-out," and took the 
first step in that long series of journeys which ended in making 
his nime a household word wherever courage and ju'rseveranec 
are vMucd as they should be. The tree tliat was sh..ped into 
the canoe was cut a few rods nunh of the iircsenfc Bridge. I 
therefore move th:»t our new strueture be christened the '• Led- 
yard Free Bridge." 

The resolution was put, and resulced in an unaniuiOus afnrm- 
ative, 

" And as it is the custom when a prince is born, to announce 
the fact by a salvo of artillery, I have the pleasure of luforming 
vou that tlic christening will be ratified by a national salute, 
hiod by the young gentlemeu connected with the Norwich Uni 
versity, imn^icdiatoly after the close of those services." — - 

The au<lienee then li.itened to another hue V'.'hintary, per 
ftrrmed by the ila.ndcl Society, at the close of which the meeting 
adjourned. 



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